Secure, reliable and automated transfer of mission-critical data has become the backbone of successful modern enterprises. This activity is an integral part of business processes that not only span business units within an organization but also extend outside the organization to customers, vendors/suppliers, financial institutions, business partners, governmental and regulatory agencies and other constituencies. The transferred data can be structured or non-structured and can reside in files that may be as small as an individual insurance claim or multi-gigabyte files such as complex CAD-CAM drawings, consolidated financial data or database backups to disaster recovery sites.
The financial services industry, for example, provides a wide variety of business processes such as securities clearing and settlement, funds transfer (ACH), credit card processing, and cash management. Such services require secure, reliable and automated data transfer. Similar business processes that involve secure data transfer can be found in other industries as well. Examples include billing (telecom), inventory updates (retail) and claims processing (insurance). Many business controls, such as service level agreements, regulatory requirements and associated penalties and organizational production schedules, require that secure data transfer be an integral part of the enterprise-wide IT strategy and infrastructure.
Large networks are inherently unreliable and are prone to breakdown because of their size and complexity. The resulting disruptions in data transfer—for example, due to network interruptions or server failures—can have a negative impact on the business. The strategic importance of the data transfer activity for business operations, therefore, requires that such activities are dependable, manageable and secure. As the number of data transfer activities increases, the need for automation becomes a critical element in the cost-effective and reliable operation of a data movement infrastructure.